SLOW printing - InDesign CS!

[Anita_Damkier@adobeforums.com]

Hi,

I layout a 4-colour magazine in InDesign CS and have a document with rather many photos in it. It takes a long long time to print (says: "flattening page" and then "downloading picture"). I always use the "place-command" and this is the correct way, I believe... In PageMaker you were always asked wheter you wished to store a copy in the publication, but InDesign does not. Can I do anything to make my publication lighter for printing?

I usually place tif-files but I wonder if I remember correctly that InDesign can use psd-files just as well?

Thanks in advance!

Anita

[Jim_Oblak@adobeforums.com]

You seem to be handling images okay. The issue is with flattening. If you have a lot of transparency effects, InDesign is going to chew on them for a little longer. ID needs to flatten (or rasterize) these effects before sending on to your printer.

If you do not use these effects, it will print faster.

[Ken_Grace@adobeforums.com]

And don't embed images. It probably won't make much difference to your
printing speed, but it will make your InDesign file a lot bigger than it
need be.

k

[Anita_Damkier@adobeforums.com]

Dear Ken and Jim!

Thanks for your answers. Makes sense with the transparency - I have used that a lot!

Ken, I don't know how I chose to embed or not embed my images?

Anita

[Ken_Grace@adobeforums.com]

When you send a file for remote printing you have two options:

Package the file, which copies all graphics, fonts and anything else needed
to open the file.

Or

Much easier, just make a press ready PDF and send that. Talk to your printer
about what he needs in a PDF and if necessary send a test file just to be
sure. If you are using a lot of transparency you are best advised to use
Acrobat 5 standard for the PDF, but your printer might not like the font
encoding.

But once you have got a standard agreed, PDFs are so much easier to use as a
pre-press medium.

k